June 3: This Day In History

zoot_suit_riotsJune 3, 2014 – Segment 1

Marc shares some of the events that happened on this day in history, including the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots, when white US Navy soldiers clashed with Latino youth in LA, the births of Memphis Minnie, Raul Castro and Curis Mayfield, and the deaths of author Franz Kafka and Jack Kevorkian.

LINK

On this day in history:

1539: Having been in Florida for only a few days, today, Hernando de Soto formally claims

Florida for the King of Spain.

1833: Today, Secretary of War Lewis Cass gives orders directly to the United States Marshal’s

office to remove white settlers, and trespassers, from CREEK lands in Alabama.

1833 – Fourth national Black convention met in Philadelphia with sixty-two delegates from eight

states. Abraham D. Shadd of Pennsylvania was elected president.

1839 – In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British

merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium

War.

1854 – Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave, was arrested in Boston. His master refused an offer of

$1200 made by Boston citizens for his freedom.

1885 – In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear,

escapes the North-West Mounted Police.

1900: Int’l Ladies Garment Workers Union founded.

1918: A federal child labor law, enacted two years earlier, was declared unconstitutional.

1943 – In Los Angeles, California, white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines clash with Latino youths

in the Zoot Suit Riots.

1949 – Wesley A. Brown became the first Black graduate of Annapolis Naval Academy.

1961: Clarence Gideon is arrested and charged with breaking into a poolroom in Florida. His

case managed to change one the chief principles of American criminal justice.

In Gideon v. Wainwright, in the Supreme Court it was ruled that a fair trial “cannot be realized if

the poor man charged with [the] crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.”

Due to Clarence Gideon’s perseverance, every criminal suspect is entitled to representation by

a lawyer.

1967: Aretha Franklin went to No.1 on the US singles chart with her version of the Otis Redding

hit ‘Respect’. A No.10 hit on the UK chart. Aretha scored her first UK No.1 20 years later with a

duet with George Michael ‘I Knew You Were Waiting’.

1967: The Doors ‘Light My Fire’ was released in the US, where it went on to be No.1 on the

singles chart two months later. When The Doors were booked to appear on The Ed Sullivan

Show they were asked to change the line “girl, we couldn’t get much higher”, as the sponsors

were uncomfortable with the possible reference to drug-taking. The band agreed to do so, and

did a rehearsal using the amended lyrics; however, during the live performance, lead singer Jim

Morrison sang the original lyric, after which they were informed they would never appear on the

Ed Sullivan show again.

1972: Sally Priesant ordained, first woman rabbi in the United States.

1989: Following student unrest spreading to the rest of the population China starts the use of

troops to quell protesters which is not successful the first time in Tiananmen Square.

2008: Over four hundred children in Texas who had been taken from a polygamist sect began

returning to their families after a court ruled the officials who had conducted the raid on the

ranch did not provide sufficient evidence that the children were in immediate danger. The court

also placed restrictions on the return of the children, mandating that the parents take parenting

classes and comply with all possible chide abuse investigations.

2009: New Hampshire became the sixth state in the United States to make gay marriage legal.

The governor, John Lynch, signed the legislation allowing same-sex marriage surrounded by

supporters.

 

Born on this day in history:

1853: Hannah Kent Schoff born (reformer, PTA founder).

1877 – Roland Hayes, first African American to give a recital in Boston’s Symphony Hall, born.

1871 – Miles Vandehurst Lynk, founder of the first African American medical journal and

organizer of the National Medical Association, born.

1897 – Memphis Minnie, American singer-songwriter (d. 1973)

1904 – Charles R. Drew, American physician and surgeon (d. 1950)

1906: Josephine Baker born (entertainer)

1906: Mildred Edie Brady born (journalist, editor, reformer, consumer advocate)

1911: Jean Harlow born (actress)

1924 – Jimmy Rogers, American singer and guitarist (d. 1997)

1925 – Tony Curtis, American actor (d. 2010)

1926: Colleen Dewhurst born (actress)

1930 – Dakota Staton, American singer (d. 2007)

1931 – Raúl Castro, Cuban politician, 17th Prime Minister of Cuba

1940 – Loretta Long, American actress and singer.

1942 – Curtis Mayfield, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Impressions) (d. 1999)

1944: Martha Clarke born (dancer, choreographer)

1946 – Eddie Holman, American singer.

1949 – Floyd Lloyd, Jamaican singer.

1951: Born on this day, Deniece Williams, US singer, (1978 US No.1 & UK No.3 single with

Johnny Mathis ‘Too Much Too Little Too Late’, 1984 US No.1 & UK No.2 single ‘Let’s Hear It For

The Boy’). Worked as a backing singer with Stevie Wonder’s group Wonderlove.

1961: Born on this day, El Debarge, Debarge, (1985 UK No.4 single ‘Rhythm Of The Night).

1962 – David Cole, American songwriter and producer (C+C Music Factory).

1986 – Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player.

 

On this day in history, we lost:

1861 – Stephen A. Douglas, American politician (b. 1813)

1888: Alice Fisher died (nurse)

1924 – Franz Kafka, Czech author (b. 1883)

1940: Helen Marot died (reformer, librarian, labor organizer, public official, writer)

1989: Ayatollah Khomeini who had led the 1979 revolution and overthrow of Mohammad Reza

Pahlavi, the last Shah of Persia and became the country’s Supreme Leader of the new Islamic

Republic of Iran dies.

2001 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor and producer (b. 1915)

2011: Controversial doctor, Jack Kevorkian, died at the age of eighty-three. Kevorkian was

known as “Doctor Death” and had spent eight years in prison for aiding in assisted suicides of

one hundred and thirty people. He was released from prison in 2007 and a movie about him and

his life was made in 2010. Kevorkian advocated assisted suicide for terminally ill patients and

his trial and conviction of murder for assisting a suicide sparked much debate on the subject.

2012 – Andy Hamilton, Jamaican-English saxophonist and composer (b. 1918)

2013: The United States’ oldest Senator, Frank Lautenberg, died at the age of eighty-nine after

suffering from complications of pneumonia. Lautenberg had served over three decades during

five different terms.

 

Sources: The People HistoryThis Day in Labor HistoryWikipedia List of Historical AnniversariesThis Day in Women’s HistoryThis Day in African History;History.comHistory OrbYenobaSelected Black FactsPhil Konstantin’s North American Indian History; and This Day in Music